Firms urged to sponsor programme and students in IPS

PORT HARCOURT : Institute of Petroleum Studies (IPS) in the University of Port Harcourt has appealed to stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to support growth of the institution.

In a chat with newsmen, Director of the IPS, Professor Joseph Ajienka said assistance could come as sponsorship for programmes and students.

â€œWe call on the petroleum industry to support the institute by sponsoring students and new programmes so as to encourage our march towards developing quality manpower for the international petroleum industryâ€, he said.

He said the institution was setting up a petroleum museum that would document and preserve rare artifacts associated with the hydrocarbon industry in the country. And it had acquired its first artifact, a seventeen million years old fossil of â€œShell Bivalve (pectan elegans found in Apt France) presented by Dr Jereon van der Veer, President of Shell International at the Hague â€œ

Prof Ajienka said the school cameÂ into being through collaboration between Ecole du Petrole et Moteurs (IFP) school Paris, France and the University of Port Harcourt. And it is totally committed to raising internationally trained manpower for the petroleum industry which also is an international affair.

â€œThe pioneer sponsor is the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Elf Nigeria Limited Joint Venture, in pursuit of its sustainable development programme.â€

Urging companies and stakeholders to come and sponsor new programmes, he said at the moment, the institute was running master’s in two petroleum-related areas and a post- graduate diploma programme being funded by Total for qualified people in its host